Emily

Chapter Ten

"How do you all feel about a ride and picnic today?" Emily suggested a few days later at breakfast, as she spread strawberry jam over a scone that was already oozing clotted cream, instantly making Nate look up at her. It was definitely a fine idea, but he didn't want to appear too eager, so he waited for someone else to agree.

"That would be fantastic, don't you think, Allie?" Cassandra said, prodding her younger sister in the side so she'd pay attention. Alexandra had been floating on air ever since the ball, and Nate suspected that the young Mr. Bennett was to be blamed for it. Emily had confided in him about the man after the ball, but had made him promise that he would allow Allie to learn herself and not push her into a decision that she would only resent him for.

"Huh?" Allie asked, looking up from her eggs with a silly grin. "Oh, yes, whatever." She agreed, giggling to herself.

"Should I be worried?" Nate asked jokingly, his eyes narrowing at Allie, who either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him. It was probably a little bit of both, really.

"I'll go tell the cook to pack a picnic lunch for all of us, then." Cassandra said, rising from the table, and Nate snickered as the sleeve of her dress fell into the dish of jam by her plate. She glared at him, immediately picking up her napkin to dab at her sleeve.

"Where's Kit, by the way?" Allie questioned, suddenly rising from her blissful state of ignorance. "I haven't seen him at all this morning."

"Oh, he rose early as always today." Cassie answered, setting the napkin down again. "He dressed only an hour or two after dawn and decided to take Juliette on a walk. Even she couldn't stay awake at such an hour. I can't imagine how he wakes up so terribly early." She shuddered dramatically, making Allie giggle loudly.

"And what is this I hear?" Kit asked amusedly from the doorway, his daughter nestled in his arms. "My own dear wife condemning me? How am I to stand this sacrilege?"

"You'll survive." Cassandra rolled her eyes, and walked over to him to take Juliette. "And you, little Lady Juliette Weston, how did you enjoy your walk with Papa?"

Juliette gurgled happily, and Cassandra pressed a kiss to her head. "Come, we shall go see if Mrs. Wyatt will scavenge something for a picnic for us later." She said to the baby, who was entirely unaware of what her mother was saying, yet still babbled. "Kit, why don't you eat now, love? You must be hungry. I must say, the scones are delicious today."

Seeing his sister married and maternal was incredibly odd and Nate still wasn't used to it, so he resisted the urge to gag. Hopefully, Allie wouldn't feel the need to find a husband or procreate any time soon, for that would be even stranger as Allie was his little sister, a baby as far as Nate was concerned.

"How was your walk?" Emily asked, popping the last bit of her scone into her mouth. As Kit mumbled something about the beauty of the countryside, he cracked a hard-boiled egg open, his attention focused entirely on that. If he'd been up for hours, he was probably starving.

"Really, though, how on Earth do you awaken so early?" Allie demanded, still buttering the piece of toast that had been in her plate for the last fifteen minutes. She really was preoccupied.

"I find I simply can't sleep after a certain time. I just have to get out of bed." He confessed, hungrily biting into his food.

The conversation continued for a little while longer. After Kit finished eating, all of them retired to the sitting room, where they were joined by Cassie and Juliette not long after. They spent the rest of their morning in leisure and, at about noon, decided to depart to a nearby cliff for their picnic.

Nate's horse was a newly tamed roan stallion named Musket. He had been purchased only two months ago, when his old horse, Midnight, had sadly passed away. Musket had taken some getting used to because his temperament was rather wild, but Nate eventually grew to like him quite a lot. He didn't allow anyone but Nate and the stable boy, Stanley, to touch him and he enjoyed that greatly.